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Here’s a table summarizing the information that PrivadoVPN logs:
| Data Type | Logged by PrivadoVPN |
|---|---|
| Browsing Activity | No |
| Device Information | Yes |
| DNS Queries | No |
| Individual Bandwidth Usage | Yes |
| Individual Connection Timestamps | No |
| ISP | No |
| Number of Simultaneous Connections | No |
| Originating IP Address | No |
| Account Information | Yes |
| VPN Server IP | No |
| VPN Server Location | No |
| Date of Last Connection | No |
You can read PrivadoVPN’s privacy policy in full on its website.
PrivadoVPN only collects a small amount of information, and none of it is identifiable. It doesn’t log any sensitive data, such as your IP address or the websites you visit.
However, this is not a no-logs privacy policy, and the data it collects appears to be stored indefinitely. VPNs like Private Internet Access maintain an excellent service without storing any information at all.
PrivadoVPN loses points in our privacy assessment because it’s a relative newcomer to the VPN market and it’s not yet done enough to evidence its privacy claims and build user trust.
PrivadoVPN could fix this by commissioning an independent audit into its privacy policy. It could also release regular transparency reports that detail the legal requests it receives and how it responds to them. A warrant canary would be useful, too.
The company behind PrivadoVPN is legitimate and we like that it’s based in Switzerland, which has no data retention laws and respects consumer privacy. It is not a member of the European Union, so it doesn’t abide by the Data Retention Directive, either.
Moreover, Switzerland has no role in the Five Eyes or 14 Eyes alliances, or any other anti-privacy intelligence-sharing agreements. In other words, PrivadoVPN is under no legal obligation to store or share the data of its users.
For this reason, we think PrivadoVPN is trustworthy. However, there is no information about the company behind PrivadoVPN. We want PrivadoVPN to build further trust by releasing transparency reports and commissioning audits of its logging policy.
We tested PrivadoVPN Pro and PrivadoVPN Free with every major international streaming site. Here’s a list of popular streaming platforms that each version of PrivadoVPN currently unblocks:
| Streaming Platform | PrivadoVPN Premium | PrivadoVPN Free |
|---|---|---|
| Channel 4 | Yes | Yes |
| Amazon Prime Video | Yes | Yes |
| BBC iPlayer | No | No |
| Disney+ | Yes | Yes |
| HBO Max | Yes | Yes |
| Hotstar India | No | No |
| Hulu | Yes | Yes |
| ITVX | No | No |
| Netflix US | Yes | Yes |
| YouTube | Yes | Yes |
Both versions of PrivadoVPN can unblock Netflix in the US and the UK, but nowhere else.
This is nowhere near as many Netflix libraries as similar VPNs can access — Windscribe Free unblocks 32, for example. Failing to access Japanese Netflix is also disappointing, but reliable access to the US region is a big perk.
This is especially the case for PrivadoVPN Free, which is one of the few free VPNs to unblock Netflix and the only free VPN that can access US Netflix on desktop devices.
However, the amount of time you can stream with PrivadoVPN Free is heavily restricted by its 10GB monthly data cap.
Both the paid and free version of PrivadoVPN also work to unblock US streaming services like HBO Max, Disney+, Hulu, and US Amazon Prime Video.
PrivadoVPN Free unblocks HBO Max and more georestricted streaming sites.
Because of its success unblocking US Netflix and other geo-blocked sites, PrivadoVPN is the best free VPN for streaming overall, with Windscribe Free a close second.
PrivadoVPN didn’t unblock BBC iPlayer on its Manchester server, but it did work on its London server – for a while. Coming back to test it again shortly afterward, our real location was detected by the BBC’s blocking technology.
BBC iPlayer detected that we were using PrivadoVPN to watch British TV.
PrivadoVPN also failed to access ITVX. However, watching Channel 4 from abroad was far more successful, including when using PrivadoVPN Free. Overall, fans of British TV should choose a UK VPN that unblocks all British streaming sites, instead.
You will struggle to access streaming sites using PrivadoVPN unless you select ‘Stream Content’ when installing the VPN. As you can see in the screenshot below, this option is presented to you when asked to ‘Find the Best Server Configuration’.
Be sure to select ‘Stream Content’ when signing up for PrivadoVPN.
If you’ve already signed up to PrivadoVPN and are experiencing streaming issues, contact PrivadoVPN’s support team and ask to have a streaming-optimized account activated.
We’d prefer it if this wasn’t necessary at all, particularly because it’s not made clear this is required. We’d also like to see identifiable streaming-optimized servers. Instead, you’re left to guess which servers work through time-consuming trial and error.
We tested PrivadoVPN’s average speeds when connecting to servers on six continents Here are the results for PrivadoVPN Premium in full:
These results show that PrivadoVPN performs very well connecting to any part of the globe. On local connections, our speed loss was marginal at just 8%.
Its international speeds are naturally slower, but still more than enough for Full HD streaming, video calling, and even gaming.
For example, connecting to Australia we picked up speeds of 82Mbps despite over 10,000 miles of geographical distance.
PrivadoVPN Free performs just as well — and sometimes better — than the paid version in our VPN speed tests.
We recorded local average connection speeds of 96Mbps, which is actually better than the pro version.
Similarly, its Germany connection speeds were faster compared to the Pro version, and its long-distance UK speed were similar at 89Mbps.
This means that PrivadoVPN does not throttle its free servers like other free VPNs do, such as Hide.me Free.
While this is excellent for users of the free version, paid users might feel short-changed by this.
PrivadoVPN has servers located in these regions:
| Continent | Number of Countries |
|---|---|
| Europe | 24 |
| Asia | 12 |
| South America | 2 |
| North America | 3 |
| Africa | 1 |
| Oceania | 2 |
PrivadoVPN’s premium server network caters heavily to European countries, with only one server location on the African continent and two in South America. Asia is relatively well represented, but we’d like to see PrivadoVPN generally invest in more locations going forward.
PrivadoVPN’s server network is small compared to the competition.
PrivadoVPN’s server network is nowhere near the size of networks offered by top-ranking VPNs.
ExpressVPN scores 9.9 in our server evaluation because it has lots of servers spread across 100 countries, including a much greater focus on often-neglected regions like Africa and the Middle East.
One of the reasons that PrivadoVPN has a small server network is that it is exclusively devoted to building an all-physical server network. This is more expensive, and it makes it much harder for PrivadoVPN to provide IP addresses in countries with less developed infrastructure.
There are some privacy benefits to choosing physical over virtual servers, but we are worried that, as the subscriber base grows, servers will become increasingly congested.
PrivadoVPN Free has a substantially smaller network compared to the paid version, but 11 countries is a lot when compared to other free VPNs like Hotspot Shield Free, Proton VPN Free, and Atlas VPN Free.
These competing services have server locations in 3, 3, and 2 countries respectively.
PrivadoVPN Free’s server network is refreshingly diverse. Alongside major European and North American countries, it has IP addresses for Argentina, Brazil, and India. It’s also the best free VPN for Mexico, and there are four city-level server choices in the United States.
Here is how PrivadoVPN performed in our torrenting tests:
| Torrenting Attribute | ||
|---|---|---|
| Avg Download Bitrate | ||
| No. of P2P Servers | ||
| Logging Policy | ||
| Kill Switch | ||
| Port Forwarding | ||
| SOCKS5 |
PrivadoVPN’s network supports P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing. Its entire network is optimized for P2P traffic, including its free servers.
We tested PrivadoVPN on torrent clients like qBittorrent and uTorrent to see how it performs.
Our results show a good average download bitrate of 7.9MiB/s, but you can download torrent files quicker with faster VPNs for torrenting.
Premium PrivadoVPN users also have access to a SOCKS5 proxy on every server. The SOCKS5 proxy is a favorite of torrenters as it can allow for faster speeds and greater anonymity. This feature is not available on PrivadoVPN Free, though.
Unfortunately, PrivadoVPN does not permit port forwarding on any of its servers, so you may not be able to seed files for fellow torrenters.
Overall, PrivadoVPN is a good but imperfect choice for torrenting; it’s average bitrate is fast and it doesn’t log sensitive data, but its kill switch isn’t available on iOS, and there is no port forwarding.
In the table below, you can see the security features that PrivadoVPN has:
| Protocols | Available in PrivadoVPN |
|---|---|
| IKEv2/IPSec | Yes |
| OpenVPN (TCP/UDP) | Yes |
| WireGuard | Yes |
| Encryption | Available in PrivadoVPN |
|---|---|
| AES-128 | No |
| AES-192 | No |
| AES-256 | Yes |
| Blowfish | No |
| ChaCha20 | No |
| Security | Available in PrivadoVPN |
|---|---|
| DNS Leak Blocking | No |
| First-party DNS | No |
| IPv6 Leak Blocking | No |
| Supports TCP Port 443 | No |
| VPN Kill Switch | Yes |
| WebRTC Leak Blocking | No |
| Advanced Features | Available in PrivadoVPN |
|---|---|
| Ad Blocker | No |
| Dedicated IP | No |
| Double VPN | No |
| Smart DNS | No |
| Static IP | No |
| SOCKS | Yes |
| Split Tunneling | No |
| Tor over VPN Server | No |
| Tracker Blocker | No |
To begin our security tests, we first checked whether PrivadoVPN actually encrypts your web traffic. We did this by running it through the packet-sniffing tool Wireshark.
As you can see in the screenshot below, PrivadoVPN successfully encrypted our web traffic, which means you can trust it to hide your browsing activity from your ISP.
PrivadoVPN encrypted our internet traffic.
PrivadoVPN lets you choose between OpenVPN, WireGuard, and IKEv2 protocols. These are the leading protocols that we expect to see from any safe VPN.
PrivadoVPN uses IKEv2 by default, but we recommend changing this to WireGuard. However, WireGuard is not immediately available on the macOS app. It has to be manually authorized and installed, which is inconvenient and should be pre-installed.
If you’re a mac user, OpenVPN is the next best option.
WireGuard is not available on macOS.
Continuing our security tests, we ran all of PrivadoVPN’s apps through our unique kill switch test tool to see if it prevents accidental IP address exposure.
Our tests show that the kill switch works perfectly on Windows, macOS, and Android. In prior tests, our real IP address was leaked whenever we switched servers, so we’re pleased to see that this has been fixed after we contacted PrivadoVPN about the issue.
However, there is no kill switch on the iOS app, so we caution against using PrivadoVPN on iPhone or iPad.
PrivadoVPN’s kill switch works perfectly but is absent from iOS.
Overall, both PrivadoVPN versions are safe but short on additional features.
PrivadoVPN is safe, but it needs to add to its security suite in order to compete with top-tier VPNs. Here are some absent features that we’d like to see added:
We tested PrivadoVPN on our Shanghai server within China and found that it is able to get around The Great Firewall of China.
However, as you can see in the video below, connections within China took a very long time to establish. While we unblocked YouTube when connecting to the Taiwan server, it took over four minutes to get around Chinese website blocks (we have shortened the video).
PrivadoVPN currently works to get the free internet in China.
It’s unclear how long PrivadoVPN’s success in China will last, as it doesn’t have any obfuscation technology. Its current success is probably a result of its relative unpopularity and small user base. As PrivadoVPN gets more popular, it’s likely the Chinese authorities will identify and block it.
If that happens, Astrill VPN is a reliable alternative for China – it bypasses Chinese web blocks 100% of the time.
PrivadoVPN Free used to work in China, but since introducing the requirement for users to manually refresh data via its website each month, users in China cannot access more data as that web page is blocked in the country.
It’s rare that a free VPN works in China, so it’s a shame that the manual refresh requirement has unintentionally stopped people from accessing the global internet.
PrivadoVPN has a free version and a premium version available in three payment plans. Here they are:
Monthly
$10.99/mo
Billed $10.99 every 1 month12 Month(s)
$4.99/mo
Billed $59.98 for the first 12 months2 Year(s)
$3.99/mo
Billed $47.88 for the first 24 monthsThe two-year deal offers the best savings, but it’s still an expensive VPN, especially when considering that there are better and cheaper VPNs available.
If you’re looking to avoid a long-term commitment, we recommend Mullvad VPN, which has a price tag of $5.50 per month.
You can pay for a PrivadoVPN subscription via these methods:
American Express
Bitcoin
Mastercard
PayPal
VisaWe’re pleased to see cryptocurrencies offered as a payment method as many privacy-conscious people use them for traceless transactions.
After you buy PrivadoVPN, you are entitled to a no-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee. This essentially means that you can get a month free if you decide to get your money back.
This is standard practice with most VPN providers, although CyberGhost has a 45-day refund guarantee.
PrivadoVPN doesn’t offer a free trial of its premium version, but it does offer a 100% free version which is one of the best free VPNs you can get.
Its speeds are just as fast as the paid version, it supports P2P traffic, and it comes with a generous number of free servers — 10 countries in total. It’s also the best free VPN for watching US Netflix.
Most importantly, PrivadoVPN Free is safe. It doesn’t sell your data, there are no viruses, and it comes from a legitimate company.
The downside is a 10GB monthly data cap that severely restricts your torrenting, streaming, and browsing capacity.
Furthermore, unlike other free VPNs, PrivadoVPN forces you to login to your account and manually refresh your data each month. This is very frustrating.
To get PrivadoVPN Free you just need to provide an email address and download the software. No payment details are required.
PrivadoVPN has native apps for the following devices:
Windows
Mac
iOS
AndroidThere are manual setup guides on PrivadoVPN’s website if you want to set up the VPN on your home router or on Linux.
PrivadoVPN imposes a limit of 10 simultaneous connections. This should be more than enough for most users, enabling you to connect to every device you own, and it’s double what’s on offer from top-rated services like ExpressVPN.
However, other VPNs like Surfshark and IPVanish have abandoned device limits entirely.
As PrivadoVPN can be manually installed on router, it’s technically possible to use it on devices that don’t permit VPN apps, such as:
Apple TV
Amazon Fire TV
Android TV
Chromecast
Nintendo
PlayStation
Roku
Smart TV
XboxIt’s a shame that PrivadoVPN doesn’t offer a Smart DNS tool, which makes it easier to stream geo-restricted content from smart devices without the use of a VPN.
The PrivadoVPN apps are identical across all devices – a home screen with a large connect button, a server list, and a settings menu that opens in a separate window.
We would like to see more VPNs imitate this level of consistency across apps, but PrivadoVPN should offer more customization options.
Here’s a more detailed analysis of our experience using PrivadoVPN’s apps:
We’ve been using PrivadoVPN’s desktop apps since 2019 and have witnessed considerable improvements to the user experience and design — mainly fixing bugs and making it smoother.
It remains incredibly simple, and we appreciate that the kill switch toggle sits front and center (with a useful tooltip) on the home screen – highlighting its importance.
However, one design gripe we have is that the settings menu opens a new window, so the experience becomes less contained, your desktop more cluttered, and you have to manually close the window.
PrivadoVPN has an ‘undock’ and drag feature and its settings open in a new window.
On macOS, we like the inclusion of a ‘dock to tray’ or ‘undock’ feature. This gives you the ability to drag and move the app or fix it to the tray, offering control over the PrivadoVPN experience.
However, you cannot manually resize the app, and the only other form of customization on macOS is an Auto Connect toggle.
On Windows, PrivadoVPN users can use split tunneling. This gives Windows users control to decide which apps and websites go through the VPN tunnel and which don’t. We’d like to see this included for macOS and iOS users, too.
PrivadoVPN on iOS is even more stripped back than the macOS version. The interface is identical, but there are even fewer settings. The only thing you can do is change protocol or turn on Auto Connect.
PrivadoVPN has split tunneling on Android (right) but not on iOS (left).
The Android app is slightly more advanced, with a ‘Smart Route’ (split tunneling) tool and kill switch.
In previous tests, PrivadoVPN’s Fire TV Stick app was buggy and did not work. However, PrivadoVPN has updated and fixed its app, and it now functions well to unblock streaming services, including US Netflix.
In the video below, we use PrivadoVPN’s Chicago server to unblock and stream US Netflix on Firestick:
PrivadoVPN has fixed its Fire TV Stick app and it now streams US Netflix.
The app itself is simple and pleasing to the eye. In terms of functionality, we like that you can favorite servers, as this saves you having to click all the way down to the bottom of the server list each time.
You can contact PrivadoVPN’s customer support team in the following ways:
| Customer Support | Available in PrivadoVPN | Available in PrivadoVPN Free |
|---|---|---|
| 24/7 Live Chat Support | No | No |
| 24/7 Email Support | No | No |
| Chatbot | No | No |
| Live Chat Support | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | Yes | |
| Email Support via Online Form | Yes | Yes |
| Tutorial Videos | No | No |
| Online Resources | Yes | Yes |
PrivadoVPN has a live chat feature that it says is available 24/7. However, it’s actually available at unpredictable times. Sometimes we’ve sought help and received an answer instantly. Other times it has taken hours.
This was frustrating, so we used a ticket system on its website instead. We sent the ticket at 14:27 and got a response at 16:07 – nearly a two hour waiting window. The response was polite and helpful enough, though.
We’re pleased that PrivadoVPN’s live chat is available to everyone, whether you’re a subscriber or not. This is not always the case with VPN providers. However, we’d prefer it if you didn’t have to fill out your name, email, and category of enquiry before initiating the conversation.
PrivadoVPN live chat forces you to fill out your name and email.
We found the live chat response to be fast and useful. However, the agent was too keen to end the conversation. By the time we had consulted their response via the provided link, they had ended the chat.
The website has some basic FAQs (mainly used to promote the service) and a few helpful setup guides, as well as some articles on general privacy, but it’s far behind the sort of comprehensive online help you get from a VPN like Astrill.
PrivadoVPN is new to the market, and it has a long way to go before we can wholeheartedly recommend it.
While far from being a bad VPN, the premium version does not excel in a single category or offer any advanced features like multi-hop servers, Smart DNS, or browser extensions.
PrivadoVPN Premium is good for unblocking geo-restricted US streaming sites, including HBO Max, Hulu, Disney+, and US Netflix. But, even then, there are better VPNs for streaming.
Similarly, while PrivadoVPN works in China and is optimized for torrenting, it’s nowhere near the best VPNs for beating censorship or safe torrenting.
While PrivadoVPN is a good VPN, we cannot recommend paying the $3.99 price tag, which is more expensive than 80% of the top 10 VPNs.
On the other hand, the free version of PrivadoVPN is definitely worth downloading, as it doesn’t cost a dime. It’s the best free VPN for streaming and it delivers the same fast speeds as the premium version. If you’re interested in PrivadoVPN, we only recommend the free version.
Alternatives to PrivadoVPN
PrivateVPN is 50% cheaper than PrivadoVPN and accesses even more blocked streaming sites. It unblocks 14 Netflix regions — 7x more than PrivadoVPN — and, unlike PrivadoVPN, it has working apps for Fire TV Stick and Android TV.
Windscribe offers a similar free version to PrivadoVPN, with a 10GB data cap and over 10 free servers. However, we rank it higher for privacy and it’s more trustworthy.
PrivadoVPN is not as good as NordVPN. In each of our 10 major testing categories NordVPN performs better than PrivadoVPN.
NordVPN unblocks more streaming sites, has faster download speeds, better customer support, and more servers across the globe. It’s also cheaper than PrivadoVPN.
However, NordVPN doesn’t have a free version. PrivadoVPN is better than NordVPN if you’re looking for a free VPN.
User Reviews are shown in the original language of submission.
